Letter to the editor

“The Winter of Oil’s Discontent” is one of the best articles I have ever read in HCN! The article hit the nail on the head. I was born and raised in San Juan County, New Mexico. My family has a long history of “patch” employment in the San Juan Basin. We have endured multiple booms […]

The March 16 “Heard around the West” contained a lovely account of Boulder, Colorado’s gnome liberation movement. Somewhere out there is a gorgeous French movie showing a young lady kidnapping her father’s garden gnome and subsequently sending him photographs of his gnome in various exotic settings — Roman ruins, Golden Gate Bridge, rodeo arenas, etc.  Boulder […]

The in-depth profile of Pat Mulroy made the mistake many others have made in evaluating her, abandoning balance and working to explain away the hypocrisies of her tenure as Las Vegas’ water boss (“Unite and Conquer,” HCN, 4/13/15). Her hard-nosed tactics may be viewed by admirers as feints meant to foster collaboration among other water […]

“Unite and Conquer” was a puzzling article (HCN, 3/2/15). I think the title should have had “Unite” in very small lower case and “Conquer” in large, capitalized bold face.Your heroine comes across as an 800-pound gorilla with a typical, to me, Las Vegas attitude: Give me what I want or I’ll bury you with my […]

“Unite and Conquer” left out an important fact about Mulroy’s Plan B to pump groundwater from rural eastern Nevada to Las Vegas. At least part of the groundwater in question is shared with Utah and used by ranchers in Utah’s West Desert. In 2013, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert decided not to sign an agreement with […]

I found “Unite and Conquer” fascinating, informative and thorough. It appears Ms. Mulroy has moved the Southwest water conversation to greater depths indeed. What I find disappointing, however, is that despite all talk of openness, one option is unfortunately dismissed out of hand. Why not spend the billion dollars suggested for a groundwater-pumping alternative to pay people to […]

I found an interesting parallel in the March 2, 2015, issue of High Country News between our use of roads and our use of water. In “Big dig, big disgrace,” the trials and tribulations of Bertha’s attempt to dig a highway tunnel under the Seattle waterfront point to a counterintuitive reality, that more roads might […]

There is so much talk about who should own public lands and how they should be managed (“This Land Is Their Land,” HCN, 2/2/15). I recommend a great book, The Big Burn, by Timothy Egan. In it, Egan outlines how Teddy Roosevelt was farsighted enough to see that all Americans deserve access to certain lands. […]

In May of 1966, I returned from a combat tour in Southeast Asia. It was a return full of challenges (“Wilderness as therapist,” HCN, 2/16/15). For two years, I had been surrounded by the noise and smell of war and had been trying to survive day to day. How was I going to cope? I […]

Marshall Swearingen’s article on the ongoing battle over access to public lands (“This Land Is Their Land,” HCN, 2/2/15) highlights two of the most crucial concepts in the formation of the culture of the West: private ownership rights and the large amount of land held in the public domain. These two elements and the balancing […]

“This Land Is Their Land” exposes the problems of blocked access, but frames it in terms of landowners vs. access seekers. I have been on both sides of the issue, and I understand that it is not that simple. Like many residents of Albuquerque’s wildland-urban interface, I live a 10-minute walk from public land that […]

… on Judith Lewis Mernit’s story, “Why are environmentalists mad at Jerry Brown?” Fred Rinne: “Brown takes big money from the Western States Petroleum Association and will not end fracking in our state. His water plan would, if enacted, wipe out river, estuary and bay ecosystems to benefit a few billionaire agribusiness crooks and developers.” […]

As an Arizona resident for more than 30 years, I read “Transportation Transformation” with great interest (HCN, 11/24/15). I applaud the light rail, more bikes and walking. However, I believe there are unacknowledged consequences to the new, denser development. In reality, this push for infill in the center of communities is another building boom to accommodate […]

Michelle Nijhuis suggests that accelerating Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and “voluntary decency” can help us meet the challenges of the modern West (“Where’s Aldo?” HCN, 1/19/15). I would offer that the first step is to recognize and support implementation of this ethic where it already exists and to understand that doing the “right thing” for […]

In HCN’s special issue on the future, the first two essays discuss Aldo Leopold’s land ethic and William O. Douglas’ dissent in Sierra Club vs. Morton. I’d like to connect these ideas using Leopold and Christopher Stone, whose law review article Douglas cited in his dissent. In his 1949 “Land Ethic,” Leopold challenges us to expand […]

… on Sarah Gilman’s story,  “Where can we say ‘Yes’ to oil and gas?” Wade Field Dixon: “Drill here and do it right.” Joanne Hudela: “Nowhere! It’s destroying everything! Make it illegal! Decriminalize industrial hemp and help heal this planet! Oil and gas is passe and ignorant!” Steve Barry: “I HEART DRILLING.”                   Susan Cromer: […]

What are we thinking? I’m thinking that capitalism and Gaia have nothing in common. It was thought in the 19th century, when imperialism justified itself with various racist faux-Darwinian scientisms, that nature fit neatly with Adam Smith’s exaltation of the free market. But now we know better. Global capitalism is destroying the planet. What thinking […]

Your piece on the differing responses to wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone was a welcome change from the oversimplified accounts that have dominated media coverage (“Have returning wolves really saved Yellowstone?” HCN 12/8/14). One important factor was missing, even though it is likely to become the most critical one: climatic change.   Our University of New […]

Imagine my surprise at seeing the frontispiece of my doctoral dissertation on the cover of High Country News (“The Dust Detectives,” 12/22/14). To those who study it, the atmospheric transport of dust and pollution is a truly exciting detective drama, full of twists and new discoveries. It is a field both driven by and motivating imaginative […]